A FRUSTRATED driver has claimed to have exposed a sneaky stalling trick car dealership staff use to get buyers to fork out more cash.
He said a salesman “walked away” and left him alone for half an hour in the showroom when he tried to buy a new truck.
Driver Zachary Morton vented his annoyance over the bizarre episode in a TikTok video.
He asked viewers: “Has anyone else went to buy a truck and the salesman just kind of walks away for like 30 minutes?
“And you’re like, ‘Dude, I just want to buy a truck. Just sell me a truck. What’s the big deal?”
More than 1,500 viewers have commented on Morton’s post, with many saying he’d been stung by a common, “hard sell” tactic employed by motor dealers to keep customers in the showroom for longer.
One person wrote: “As a former finance director, it’s a sales tactic. I highly recommend using their phone on the showroom floor to call another dealership.
“Things will speed up real fast after that.”
Another commenter warned: “That’s how they fatigue you. Tell them not to waste your time and start walking out. They’ll move quicker.”
A third viewer quipped: “I swear it takes longer to buy a vehicle than it does to buy a home.”
Some commenters said Morton fell prey to a technique known as the “waiting game.”
In this instance, the salesperson will stall for as long as possible, hoping the customer will either run out of time or become so impatient that they make a rash purchase decision.
It differs from the ore aggressive “hard sell” approach, in which the salesperson won’t leave the buyer alone for a moment to think.
It is a selling tactic used to lure into thinking they’ll lose out if they don’t make an on-the-spot decision.
However, car salespeople have defended their hard- selling actions in a Reddit thread to “askcarsales” five years ago.
“Sales consultants don’t get paid a dime if you don’t buy a car,” remarked one user.
“Furthermore, if you step on a lot with the ability to buy, you’re almost certainly guaranteed to do so, it’s just a question of whether you buy from me or somebody else.
“And this encounter is very likely to be the only chance I’ll ever have to sell you a car; if you leave without buying, you’re almost guaranteed to never come back [regardless of how much you swear you’re totally going to … we hear that all the time].”
Another Reddit poster took aim at buyers, adding to the thread: “Almost all buyers have, to some extent, champagne tastes on a beer budget.
“Either a car that’s unrealistically expensive, financial expectations that are altogether too stingy, or a lack of financial literacy that makes them ok with a truck priced competitively at $50k but expecting to be able to buy it at 350/mn with no money down.”
Morton didn’t immediately respond to a comment from The U.S Sun.
Common tactics used by car dealerships
Car salespeople in the U.S employ various tactics to influence customers. Here are some to look out for
- Bait and switch: this is where dealership staff advertise a vehicle at a low price to lure customers – only to then inform them that the motor is ‘sold’ out’ in a bid to convince them to choose a more expensive option
- Foot-in-the-door: getting a customer to agree to a smaller request, such as a test-drive, in the hope they’ll agree to a bigger purchase
- Good cop, bad cop: one salesperson plays the hard sell while the other employs a sympathetic approach
- Four Square: a method in which the dealer will simplify but potentially obscure the full details of a purchase by focusing on four key areas – price, down-payment, trade-in and monthly payment. This can be misleading as it may not provide a complete picture of the deal, omitting information such as the term, fees or interest rates
- Hard sell: this is an aggressive tactic to make the buyer believe they’ll miss out on a great deal if they don’t snap up the purchase immediately.
